Citizens UnitedCastle, Jones back Van Hollen bill, by Ken Vogel 

• Here is Public Campaign’s response to the new bill. 

Congress Goldman and its lobbyists spurned in finance fight, by Eric Lichtblau  The White House tried last week to get letters of support from Wall Street for the financial regulation overhaul, but left Goldman Sachs off the list. Lobbyists rev up over U.S. agenda  Groups spent $916 million on lobbying during the 1st quarter – more than spent in the first quarter of 2009. Goldman Sachs adds to its ranks of lobbyists, by Tomoeh Murakami Tse  “What was once a “sleepy lobby shop” has expanded to a well-connected 12 person team of lobbyists and PR folks.” Bennet bill would forever bar ex-members from lobbying, by Anna Palmer  Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has introduced a bill that would put a lifetime ban on members of Congress from lobbying. Can $25.3 million buy the senate banking committee?  The Senate banking committee has received $25.3 million from financial interests since 2005.

• Craig Holman of the watchdog group Public Citizen warns that "The public should be concerned" about such concentrated flows of money to lawmakers, given what happened in the recent past. "Because of these contributions," he said, "the federal government fell asleep when it came to regulating financial industries."

Filibustering progress, by Bob Edgar  An op-ed from Common Cause President Bob Edgar on fixing the filibuster. Other Bid for right to sign ballot petitions in secret stirs skeptics on the Supreme Court, by Adam Liptak Justices seemed skeptical of Jim Bopp’s claims to make ballot initiative signers secret.